that's probably how it starts, but once they get sucked into it, they start to believe what they are reading/hearing. they may not believe it at first, but going down a rabbit hole is real.
Sure. But speaking from personal experience, I used to go to church because my wife wanted us to go; she's a believer... so I went as a matter of convenience, for my wife, and very much integrated into that community. Yet, I went in a non-believer, I went out a non-believer, as I had no desire to believe.
And no matter what it is, being religions, plot assassinations, moon landings, human experiments, flat Earth, Deep State, etc... there is a point when the desire or even need to believe irrationally trumps intelligence.